I bought 1000 each .204 and .224 for prairie dog hunting. At 100yds they shot O.K. not as good as others but usable.When i tested them at long range they were worthless.Guess thats why they cost half as much as other bullets

I have shot a bunch of the 50 gr soft points, at paper off the bench and at gophers in Montana rested on the roof of my Subaru Forester. They are sufficiently accurate for high volume varmint shooting out to 200 yards, and while not as spectacular as Ballistic Tips or V-Maxes at closer ranges, they do provide some decent air time for the small varmints. I have shot mine out of a couple of .223's using 26.0 gr of TAC for around 3200 fps and reliable performance.

I used the 55gr HP's as the bullet I first reloaded in my .223. Some shot well, not great of stellar, but well ~ 1.25" groups at 100 yards. But I did have quite a few of them tumble in flight. I've used other 55gr bullets since and have never had the tumbling results get repeated. Looking at the bullet's hollow points, some are unevenly cut, and they are kind of on the large size for a .224" bullet (in my opinion, and from what I've seen.) Maybe it was me and my rookie loading technique, but I do blame the bullet. Take it for what it's worth.

Hi to all, new to this forum. I've bought severatl thousand of the MidSouth Varmint extreme. I shoot the 20 grain. 17's out of my. 17 Fireball, the 34 grain 20's out of my. 204, the 50 grain soft point 224's out of my. 223 and the 55 grain soft points out of my 22-250. All will shoot under an inch with the. 17's right at 5/8" out of my Remmy SPS in. 17 Fireball. Granted they're not as accurate as some of the name brands but with them I can shoot my Fireball for less then my 17 HMR. 5/8" groups with a 20 grain at over 4000 fps, I'll take that any day. Longest shot on ground squirrels was lazered at 370 yards with lots over 350.

I've been shooting the 55gr Dogtowns in my .223 and have been really surprised with them. I've been loading them with H335 and get groups under 1". I just returned from a prairie dog hunt in SD and do they really do some damage to the little critters! It was pretty windy and shooting out past 200 yards was a challenge, they drifted quite a bit.

I've been shooting the 55gr Dogtowns in my .223 and have been really surprised with them. I've been loading them with H335 and get groups under 1". I just returned from a prairie dog hunt in SD and do they really do some damage to the little critters! It was pretty windy and shooting out past 200 yards was a challenge, they drifted quite a bit.

I loaded some more of the dogtown bullets in hollow point and soft point and fired them this morning. Still cannot get a decent group, I loaded with H335 starting at 24.0 and going up in 2/10 th of a grain increments. I guess they are just not going to shoot well in my AR 15 with my 16" 1 in 8 twist R5 rifling.
I get excellent groups using Hornady AMAX and the MidwayUSA fmjbt's in bulk.

With a 1:8" twist, you're going to have to back down on the powder charges. The bullets are "over-stabilized", and probably near the self-destruction threshold.

I have to make an assumption (as much as I hate to), that you're using a 40-52 gr bullet. With that assumption, I figure your starting load should be producing 3,050-3,300 fps. (Not compensating for slight velocity loss in the short barrel.)

At those velocities, your bullets should be turning at about 274,500 to 297,000 rpm. In my experience, that's too fast. The fact that they're making it to the target seemingly in one piece is surprising, in itself.

I've seen the best results with similar bullets from about 186,000 to 225,000 rpm. ...which would require 2,066 to 2,500 fps.

Some tougher bullets will do just fine at rotational velocities around 250,000 rpm, but most lightly-constructed projectiles (like DogTowns) start having issues. They might partially deform under the centrifugal force. They might come apart entirely. Or, they might just start showing imbalance issues.

For comparison purposes, as to why this bullet works in 1:10" and 1:12" barrels at those same velocities...
3,300 fps in a 1:10" barrel results in 237,000 rpm
3,300 fps in a 1:12" barrel results in 198,000 rpm
3,050 fps in a 1:10" barrel results in 219,600 rpm
3,050 fps in a 1:12" barrel results in 183,000 rpm

As you can see, they are much closer to (or well within) the 'safe zone', than your 1:8" barrel; even in the worst case (3,300 in 1:10").

My advice would be to work DOWN from 24.0 grains, until you reach your accuracy load. If it gets to the point that the AR no longer cycles reliably, before finding that load, you'll have to choose a different powder.

__________________"Such is the strange way that man works -- first he virtually destroys a species and then does everything in his power to restore it."

In a moment of tight fisted thinking, I bought a box and want to try them in a 222 Remington. I am thinking of using the data on Hodgson website for 35 gr. V-max for the 34 gr Dog Town.

Have googled for load data and all that comes up are threads on forums. Evidently those guys are doing the same thing---taking some valid data for similar weight bullets and then going kinda trial and error till something works. As conservative as most load books are these days, it seems like it would be unlikely to get into trouble if you start with minimum loads and carefully work up slow etc.

One of my AR's has a 1:8 twist and I made the mistake of shooting a 600 yard match using 55 grain bullets. It was a huge mistake! In contrast, 69 grain bullets in that rifle gave me the best scores of my life.

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